Today I caved in to my love of cheese and went to a gorge-ous place - Cheddar!

I do love cheese and I do love scenic places, so Cheddar seemed the ideal location for the letter C in my South West Alphabet Driving Tour!
The weather was bright and sunny and perfect for a drive across Somerset to Cheddar, just 45 minutes from my home town.
I parked at the bottom of the gorge, in the first Lakeside car park, free to visitors of the gorge. From there I took a short walk up the road to purchase my passport ticket at Gough's cave as that was the first place I planned to visit.

I was greeted by a very friendly ticket seller who explained clearly all about the attractions and told me that any unused parts of the ticket would be valid for 10 years! Good thing too as there are more things to do there, than can be done in a day!
I was given an audio tour handset, so I could do the tour at my own pace.  There were several language choices and also a kids tour, which I dipped in and out of. Both the adult tour and the kids tour were entertaining and informative.  The cave was stunning. Stalactites, stalagmites, skeletons, bats and more were to be seen.  I did not take any pictures inside the cave, but you can see pictures here.  There is also loads more info about the caves and gorge on that website.

The tour took me an hour or so and I then took a wander along the road through the gorge. It sounds a bit 'cheesey', but it was gorge-ous!

Here are a few photos from that walk which I took before lunch (scroll through them to come to the next lot of writing and more photos of my day!):

 All of today's photos are again taken on my mobile phone, but I am really happy with the quality of them. They show a true reflection of how beautiful it was there.

After a walk through the cave and gorge and back to the village I was very hungry.  It was a while before I ate though as I was spoiled for choice as to where to eat. There were so many places to choose from.
I knew I wanted cheese!  I could not go to Cheddar and not eat cheese for lunch!
There were places to cater for all budgets and tastes, from tea rooms to chippies and as well as several pubs and both Indian and Chinese takeaways.

Eventually I decided upon eating in a tea room in the main street.
Here is a photo of that tea room.
It was a friendly place with a typical cafe menu. Lots of choice for families particularly. Omelettes, jacket potatoes, beans on toast, basic, but comforting fayre, along with home made cakes and some good coffee!

As I said before, I just had to have some cheese in Cheddar, so I ordered a Cheddar cheese ploughman's lunch.
Thankfully, as I said before I was very hungry because this ploughman's was HUGE! That plate you see in the photo was very large and it was piled high and wide with food!  The piece of cheese is the size of a piece I would buy myself to last a week or two at home!  
I was so hungry I probably could have eaten all of the cheese, but I decided to take some home as a souvenir of Cheddar to eat over the coming week!  I left satisfied and refuelled, ready for the walk ahead of me, which began with climbing 274 steps - Jacob's Ladder.  It was almost as steep as as last week's steps in Beer, but not quite!
After a breathtaking climb up Jacobs ladder I reached the top! Then, there were more steps, those of the lookout point. I climbed them and was rewarded with fabulous views across the West Country, in all directions.
I descended the lookout tower and decided to follow a footpath along the top of the gorge, which promised fantastic views and I was not disappointed.


Here are a few photos from that walk:

Time to don the walking shoes again! Here begins another Sunday afternoon ramble into some idyllic countryside!

The first of many stunning views!

Here I am 'on top of the world!'  It doesn't look very high up, but it was VERY high up!

Here is a view down from that spot where I was standing!

Looking over Cheddar to Cheddar reservoir and beyond that to Exmoor

 Me, looking a bit long in the face (and body!)

I love this one!

Looking across to Glastonbury Tor, far in the distance














Before I go, I just want to share a few more photos with you.  I took so many photos today!

The walk started up high and those photos you have already seen above.  It then followed the road back through the gorge to the village.

Here are a few photos from that part of the walk:

Stunning! I think you will agree!

Finally a few other photos I took:

It was great to see the wild goats grazing in the gorge.

Wild goats were my neighbours during my fabulous 6 years living in the Valley of Rocks in Lynton and I enjoyed seeing them daily, so it was lovely to see these today.  Good memories!

A couple more photos and we have reached the end of today's journey!

This waterfall makes for a lovely photo with the gorge in the background.

I spotted these icicles as I walked along the road through the gorge!







 I will definitely return again to Cheddar, not only to use up the many unused parts of my ticket, within the next 10 years, but to do this walk again. 
See you next time from somewhere beginning with D!

The discovery of a Beer I actually like!

I am not a fan of Beer when it comes to drinking. I just don't enjoy the flavour, but today I discovered a Beer that I actually like, its not a liquid refreshment, but a place of refreshment! Its a village called Beer! 

Its on the Jurassic coast in East Devon, just 50 minutes drive from my home town.
I remember visiting Beer very briefly with friends once before and since then have wanted to return to spend longer there.

I read bits and pieces on the net about it, including some great reviews of the South West Coast Path walk between there and Branscombe Mouth, a couple of miles away.

When I lived in North Devon I had the South West Coast path on my doorstep and loved walking along it through the Valley of Rocks, following it to Lynmouth in one direction or out to Hunters Inn in the other direction. On one occasion, just for fun, I joined a group of friends and we did an all night walk along it from Woolacombe back to our home (Lee Abbey) near Lynton! Good times!

So, as a fan of the South West Coast Path, I could not resist putting my walking shoes on and heading out for a walk along the path from Beer to Branscombe.  I had read that there were some steep climbs along it and that it was breathtaking.   There certainly was one steep climb in particular and the walk was breath taking in more ways than one in that part!

I had to take this walk at a faster pace than I might normally have done as I did not have enough change for more than an hour and a half in the car park in Beer. I was particularly keen to return in time to the car as, on my arrival I had seen a ticket inspector in the car park, so I knew he was out and about!
I headed up the cliff road out of Beer to join the coast path and followed it for nearly 2 miles towards Branscombe Mouth. As you will see from the photos it was absolutely stunning. It was a perfect day for a walk, sunny and breezy and I met some nice people along the way who chatted in their breathlessness to me!
Here are some photos of the walk. They can describe it better than I can!

Looking down back to Beer from the coast path

Wow!

Another nice cliffy feature along the way!

These steps were the most breath-taking part of the walk - literally!  I didn't count them, but they went almost all the way to the sea at Branscombe Mouth, which you can see at the top of this picture.  Lovely going down...but coming up again...OMG!

Lovely beach cafe at Branscombe Mouth - very welcome refreshment before the climb back over to Beer!

 On my arrival back in Beer, I decided to head straight for the car as my time was up in the car park! There was no sign of the ticket man though so I decided to have my picnic lunch in the car. Never has a Marmite sandwich tasted SO good!

This seagull had its eye on it alot of the time! I was so hot after the walk that I had the window of my car open, so glad it didn't make a grab for it!

If you want to know more about this Beer, check out this website:Beer facts!  It explains how the name originated and lots more fascinating facts about this lovely fishing village.
Had I had more cash with me I may have been tempted to buy some of the delicious fresh fish being sold on the beach! Never mind, there's salmon in the freezer! That's not a bad substitute for my dinner tonight!

My Southwest alphabet tour has started!

This afternoon I took the first journey of my alphabet tour of the South West.  Mainly I will drive to locations, be they towns, villages, hamlets, tourist attractions, fairly close to my home town (within an hour or so) but there may be occasions that I will go a little further if there are places I particularly want to see (and there are!)

Anyway, today the tour began -  with the letter A of course!

I considered a few places and eventually decided that I would visit a town, just 21 miles away that I have not been to before.  The town is Axminster.

I chose it because I wanted to visit the River Cottage Canteen and Deli there. 

The drive was a pleasant one, mainly through countryside.  It was a little grey and overcast and very wet, so I did not do much exploring.

I found the River Cottage place very easily. Its on the main Street in Axminster and there was ample parking close by in a free car park (West Street car park) and there was also some parking right outside the River Cottage in bays.
Here is a link to the River Cottage Canteen website if you want to check it out: River Cottage Canteen and Deli, Axminster

This was an excellent choice for Sunday lunch. I had wanted to visit for some time and was not disappointed. I chose to dine in the deli (there is also a canteen, which I guess is more of a restaurant). Several people were eating Sunday roast in the deli and it looked absolutely delicious (and massive!) 
I don't have a massive budget for doing these trips, so I decided on the soup of the day with bread.
This is a mobile phone picture, so its not the best quality, but I think you'll be able to see the soup (spicy parsnip) was garnished beautifully with deep fried  parsnip strips and green pesto and was served with a bread board, with lots of freshly baked bread and west country butter in a little pot!  
It was lovely and cosy in there as the rain came down outside and the staff were very friendly.  I was on my own and wondered if anyone else would be, but in the deli, I would say that 75% of the diners were on their own.  Each were reading the Sunday papers or just enjoying watching the world go by.
Alongside the deli diner bit was a deli shop which sold some amazing looking pasties, pork pies and cheeses, along with many locally produced foods, chocolates, drinks and River Cottage books, aprons, bags and more.  They often have themed nights such as steak nights, stew nights etc  I think I may return for a stew one evening!  

As I said, I did not really see much else of Axminster as the weather was not favourable to being a tourist! It was dry before I went for lunch at the River Cottage deli and I managed to get this picture of the church in the centre of the town on my mobile. I also, visited the Tesco store, which is due to expand I believe and the Tesco petrol station which is very handy on the route home!


All in all a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I will definitely return to this town! There is also a farm shop that I wish to visit there called Millers Farm Shop, on A35, but I was too late to catch that open today.  Here is the link for that, for anyone who is interested:Millers Farm Shop

For those who are interested there is also a River Cottage canteen in Bath and Hugh plans to open one in Plymouth shortly, I heard today. 

That's all for now - next time somewhere beginning with B!  I have enjoyed my first time blogging!